Burn Surgery

About the Burn Center

As the only Burn Center between New York City and the Canadian border in Eastern New York, Westchester Medical Center offers hope for survival and a productive life to hundreds of burn victims each year.

The Burn Center maintains a team of highly trained and dedicated burn specialists providing a full range of services from intensive care to rehabilitation, with special attention to the individual's physical, emotional and social needs. The burn unit is self-contained to minimize the risk of infection to the most susceptible of patients. It has private rooms, state-of-the art operating rooms and treatment areas. Family rooms, day rooms and a kitchen make patients and families as comfortable as possible.

The Burn Center at Westchester Medical Center is also home to the regional Advanced Wound Therapy and Hyperbaric Center, treating burn victims, as well as people with a wide variety of injuries and wounds.

National Burn Awareness Week Recognition

In honor of the 30th anniversary of National Burn Awareness Week, New York State Senator Terrence Murphy visited Westchester Medical Center to present a proclamation to Burn Center staff in recognition of their outstanding work. Watch the video to learn more about the recognition.

The Burn Team

The Burn Team consists of doctors, nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists and other support services who will work together to provide the best possible care.

The doctors in charge of patient care are plastic surgeons who specialize in caring for burn victims. These doctors will perform any necessary grafting or reconstructive surgery your family member will require.

All the Burn Center nurses are Critical Care RNs specially trained to provide care for adult and pediatric burn victims. These nurses attend to your family member's needs and treatments such as dressing changes and medications.

Occupational and physical therapists work together to design an exercise program necessary for recovery. As a family member, you may be asked to participate in this program. The program will consist of range-of-motion exercises and self-care activities. If skin grafting has been done, a splint or cast will be applied by the therapist to immobilize the area for a couple of days until healing takes place.

Psychosocial support is coordinated through the efforts of our social worker and pastor. They will meet with you and your family to discuss your feelings related to hospitalization and burn injury. If you have problems with lodging and/or transportation, our social worker is available to work with you on solutions.

It is very important to meet with our social worker early on to discuss insurance, Medicare and Medicaid issues so that appropriate services will be available to your family member upon discharge.

Our dietitian determines your family member's nutritional and calorie needs. In order to heal wounds, burn patients require 1 ½ to 2 times the amount of calories they normally need. Every effort is made to ensure that our patients meet their calorie needs. Our dietitian will discuss food preferences and help plan menus accordingly.